http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=9265
PlayStation 3 to launch without bundled hard disk?

Tom Bramwell 09:52 02/06/2005
SCE CTO Chatani's comments raise price issue again

Sony Computer Entertainment's chief technology officer Masayuki Chatani has 
cast doubt on the company's plans to include a hard disk unit in the 
PlayStation 3's launch package next spring.

Speaking in the pages of Japanese magazine Famitsu, Chatani said that a 
strategy had "yet to be decided", but added that he felt people would want 
to upgrade to higher capacity drives - the implication being that Sony would 
shy away from making the hard disk unit an obligatory part of the 
PlayStation 3 launch package.

Sony has previously identified a detachable 2.5" (laptop size) hard disk 
drive as an optional storage peripheral, and it is believed this will slot 
inside a small rectangular port located on the underside of the unit.

However the company has never said that a hard disk would be bundled with 
the unit at launch, and Chatani's comments this month seem to suggest it's 
erring toward not including one - and perhaps offering the peripheral 
optionally in the same way it currently sells Memory Card units separately 
from PlayStation 2.

Chatani also said that he expected people to unplug their hard disks and 
move them between PS3 units, implying a similar functionality to that of 
Xbox 360, whose detachable hard disk units appear designed to be portable 
rather than optional.

The biggest question now, of course, will be what impact such a decision 
would have on the PlayStation 3's price tag, which is already expected to be 
higher than that of its rival Xbox 360, which launches this winter. 
Microsoft's J Allard recently said the Xbox 360 would cost in the region of 
US$300.

Sony declined to clarify Chatani's comments prior to publication.